The glove box of a vehicle is provided with an opening/closing member for opening and closing the opening section thereof, and a lock apparatus for holding the opening/closing member in a closed state is installed on the glove box. The user unlocks the opening/closing member by operating the operation member of the lock apparatus and opens the opening section of the glove box.
For example, WO-2013-187388-A discloses a lock apparatus for locking a lid for opening/closing the opening section of the glove box of a vehicle. This lock apparatus is equipped with an operation member that can be slid when pushed by the user; a rotation member that is connected to the operation member and rotated by the sliding of the operation member; a housing for supporting the operation member and the rotation member; and a link rod connected to the rotation member. The connection pin of the rotation member connected to the link rod is provided at the outer circumferential end of the rotation member having a cylindrical shape. The link rod sets the lid to a locked state or an unlocked state depending on the rotation of the rotation member. The rotation member is disposed so that the rotation plane thereof is orthogonal to the sliding direction of the operation member.
In WO-2013-187388-A, when the rotation radius of the connection pin is made larger by making the radius of the rotation member larger, the movement distance of the connection pin with respect to the rotation angle thereof is made larger and the ratio of the output to the input can be made larger. However, in the case that the radius of the rotation member is made larger sufficiently, the area of the rotation member is increased and the lock apparatus is made larger in the direction along the rotation plane of the rotation member. Since the rotation member of WO-2013-187388-A has the rotation plane orthogonal to the sliding direction of the operation member, the lock apparatus becomes larger in the direction along the rotation plane of the rotation member, that is, in the direction orthogonal to the sliding direction.